Link: Mandela's B-Day message: Rich should help poor
"There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty," Mandela said.
I hate to disagree with Nelson Mandela, but I'm going to. The rich should not 'help' the poor. The rich should seek justice for all, which would help the poor a great deal. Charity is not a substitute for justice. The rich should not be asked to share what they have created, themselves. Rather, they should be "relieved" of that which they have stolen from the commons and that which they have stolen from others by owning their labor and by owning the land on which we all must rely.
If, once we've redistributed and predistributed that which is rightly common property, we still have poor among us, then perhaps charity will be needed and appropriate.
Land, be it rural agricultural land or that most valuable of resources, urban land, served by infrastructure and an elaborate web of services, is our most important asset, and while security of possession is vitally important and desirable, permitting its economic value to accrue to private individuals, corporations domestic or foreign, philanthropies, pension funds, family trusts, etc., is a major cause of poverty and of urban sprawl and all their concomitants.
Should we ask to the rich to help the poor, via charity, or simply to correct the perverse legal and economic structures which line their own pockets with the earnings of others?
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